Mengy's Alien Ruins Stellar Map Theory
Okay, so I’ve either figured out what the ruins are, or I’ve discovered a number of truly amazing and improbable coincidences of design. But, from what I have here in front of me,
I do strongly believe that the alien ruins are a stellar map giving us directions for where to follow and investigate whoever made them, or possibly something else of importance.
The summary is this: I believe the
large pad represents the ruin system
SYNUEFE XR-H D11-102, the
peak of the north pyramid above the large pad represents
SOL, the
small pad represents the system
COL 132 SECTOR CN-Z B30-10, and the
peak of the pyramid internal to the ruins likely represents system
IC 2602 SECTOR PS-J B9-10.
Now, how did I arrive at this, and what proof do I have? Let me explain how I slowly, clumsily, but mathematically came to these conclusions.
From the moment I saw the ruins in person, that north pyramid bothered me. The entire site seemed very deliberate, but that north pyramid was just a few degrees off center of the complex. It prodded at my inner engineer, and it was either a grievous mistake by whoever built the ruins, OR it was done intentionally, but for what reason? I spent a lot of time poking around exploring the ruins but the stellar map idea didn't occur to me until I went to leave for Jameson Memorial. When I opened the galaxy map to plot my course I realized that my bookmarks for both Sol and the ruin system seemed, when viewed from above, to be offset about the same relative amount in the Y axis as the pyramid is to the large pad.
That's the moment I started working on my map theory.
I began surveying the site, taking measurements using my SRV and Anaconda to get distances between features. I was immediately surprised to find that the distance in meters between the north pyramid peak and the large pad center is very close to the distance in light years between Sol and SYNUEFE XR-H D11-102. It wasn't exact but only off by like 10%. I made other measurements and worked out a rough stellar map on paper using geometry, but it was cumbersome so I instead took an overhead picture of the ruins that someone posted in this thread, imported it into CAD, and plotted out the feature measurements of the ruins. And this is what I got:
It looked great! The large ridge running south of the large pad marked the X axis of the galaxy while the small ridge jutting off of that marked the galaxy's Y axis. It was however a 2D map, the galaxy is 3D, and since Sol and the ruins are not on the same plane I knew that whatever (if anything) the small pad was representing could be on any location of the Z axis. I realized that what was important were the two distances that I had: 886 lys to the Ruins, and 1244 lys to SOL. I just needed to find a system whose location matched both of those irregardless of the Z axis!
So I used CAD again to make a 3D model using the geometry and lengths of the map while keeping that small pad system (I started calling it Alpha Target) moveable in Z, with both Sol and the Ruins fixed. This allowed me to query a range of possible locations and coordinates for the Alpha Target system.
And so I started exploring and searching for a system which met my criteria. I figured my numbers didn't need to match precisely, my mapmaking was certainly not completely accurate, but any systems within a few light years of matching the criteria would be good candidates. Or so I thought, because I quickly realized that space is vast, and actually finding one system to meet even close to my two distances wasn't an exact science. I spent a few days searching over a hundred systems, and I did discover a couple promising candidates, systems with landable worlds that were close to hitting my numbers, but nothing convincing, nothing outstanding. I began to wonder if my theory was full of holes.
While exploring I discovered a gorgeous ice world and took a break from system hopping to run around the surface a bit for fun. When I recalled my Anaconda and approached to board I realized that the distance point of reference to the ship wasn't actually centered on the ship, the marker was offset by quite a bit. It dawned on my that although my ship had been centered on the large pad back when I measured the ruins, the distance marker from the ship would NOT have been centered! I realized that I didn't have as much faith in my map as I thought I had.
I decided to head back to the ruins, take my own aerial HD pic of the site, and do some more intensive surveying of the features. I flew back to Jameson and got my Keelback this time, a smaller ship that would be easier to center and mark locations. THIS time I placed the ship much more carefully, but while situating the Keelback on the large pad a revelation occurred to me: the actual center of the round pad isn't what's important, the intersection of the three vertical structures placed around the top of the large pad is!
The black metal structures might be alignment markers. I started looking around the ruins at other black structures and suddenly my mapping became
MUCH more accurate, as many of the black structures can be used to very accurately place the lines in my CAD map, to a much higher degree than I had managed before. They marked off the galaxy X and Y axis, they mark the centers of both pads, etc. They weren't very prominent on my original top down shot that I used, but on my new HD shot they stood out clear as a bell. And this time, much to my astonished surprise, my measured distance from the peak of the north pyramid to the intersection point on the large pad was exactly 368m, corresponding
exactly with the distance of the ruins at 368 lys from Sol:
Placing the ship
properly made all the difference. The ruins now seemed to be a one to one scale stellar map marking off straight line distance between systems, where one meter equals one light year exactly. I proceeded to measure everything else anew again while being careful to put the Keelback down with it's marker location where I wanted it (this is actually a tad forward on the Keelback, not in it's middle).
I had new numbers that were close to my original map's but certainly different, and after adjusting my 3D coordinate finder model I realized that I'd been searching in the wrong area all along, not by more than a few dozen light years but enough to matter. I quickly adjusted my CAD map with the new numbers and had a brand new map that was very similar but very different in where it would send me.
Here is the improved and much more accurate map:
http://i.imgur.com/GiFscOV.jpg
Using the black structures as guide lines in CAD greatly tightened the map up, it's numbers now precisely matched my in game surveying numbers:
But I still had an area to search for that alpha target, and I started wondering if the map itself could somehow give my my missing Z axis, surely whoever built this thing had thought of that? I started searching for some clues, looking over every corner of the site. This is where I had my second profound revelation:
The walls of the ruins aren't walls at all, they are meant to symbolize that the system the small pad represents is on the same galactic plane as the ruins system, SYNUEFE XR-H D11-102!!!! Thats why the "walls" connect the large and small pads, it locks them together on the galactic plane! Since the ruins lie at Z = -49.34 I eagerly went to my 3D coordinate finder, locked the Alpha Target to Z = -50, got my new coordinates, and opened the galaxy map to hurriedly see what was around my new target area, and Lo and Behold, for the first time during this entire mapping project there was a system
exactly where my map was telling me to look!
COL 132 SECTOR CN-Z B30-10. That's what I think the small pad represents.
I mean it was
exact, we're talking plus or minus less than one light year of a difference in any axis! My jaw literally hung open for a whole minute as I just marveled at it on my screen, I felt like Indiana Jones in the map room. What would greet me upon jumping into this system?
Well, here is the system, and the measurements to SOL and the Ruins from it, they match my map precisely:
It's an M class star with many landable planets on it. I only quickly scouted them, IMHO planet 3 hold's promise as it's the most like the first ruins planet. Plus 3 has really interesting topography, it's surface features are intense.
Now about that pyramid inside the ruin walls, my "beta target". My map also locates a 99% exact coordinate match for that as well, as long as you assume that it also lies on the same galactic plane as the large and small pad. I made this assumption since it is inside the "walls" and not outside like the north pyramid is (SOL). I think the system the inner pyramid represents is
IC 2602 SECTOR PS-J B9-10. Here it is, with distance measurements that match my map's:
I've either figured out what the ruins are or I've discovered a hugely improbable coincidence! Now, as for what actually lies IN these two target systems I've located, I've not found anything special yet in my quick exploration of both systems. System
IC 2602 SECTOR PS-J B9-10 has some really crazy orbits in it though, I don't think I've seen a system quite like it:
If my theory here is convincing enough then maybe we'll get some more commanders to join the exploration and actually find something new for the puzzle! If we find nothing then I'm just a crazy explorer who needs to be slapped around a bit, lol.
![Cmdr Delmonte[VR]](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/82/82957.jpg?1711998379){kind=avatar}
